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"From the Shadows"Written By: Honor Disclaimers: The boys are not mine (curses!) however all the other characters are, and the story, and the idea, and my evil muse. You can have my evil muse. Pairings: 4x5 Spoilers: Nope Warnings: AU, soooo AU, maybe a hint of OOC, violence,
lemon, language, political scheming and fantasy elements. Oh, and
unicorns. ^_^ Rating: R Archived: Gundam Wing Diaries Betas: Velvet and Caitilin *emphasized* =thought= ::mental communication: :
" From the Shadows "
Knowledge is power.
The tavern had a sizable crowd inside. Things had started out fairly quiet, but that was probably because they were so busy eating. Now that their bellies were full, things were starting to get a bit more rowdy. In a short amount of time, things would become *very* rowdy so it was probably wise to leave before then. It was hard to get up the energy to move, though. Almost three months he had been on this world, and still a lot of things didn’t make sense. He’d picked up the language fast—it wasn’t very complicated, and he had a knack for that kind of stuff besides—while he was wandering, trying to find a niche for himself somewhere. No luck so far, though. Maybe in the capital his luck would change. Country living had never really been his suit, anyway. A big city sounded better to him. The door opened, letting in a very dignified man that was obviously not from this area. It caught everyone’s attention, and the place slowly quieted down. Hm. Quatre looked at the stranger in curiosity. Very expensive clothing, so the man was a high ranking something or other. He wasn’t in the usual short coats and formfitting pants though but in some kind of long coat with baggy pants. The markings on the coat lapels were interesting as well. One of them he recognized as belonging to the Queen. Interesting…what was a man of that position doing in a tavern in a small farming community? He stayed right in the doorway, scanning the faces of every person in there with great care. His head slowly came around to Quatre’s side of the room and there he stopped. =…wait…he was looking for me?= Part of Quatre panicked. He hadn’t broken any laws…well, known that he knew of at least but there was a possibility he’d broken something he *wasn’t* aware of and that was kind of worrying. Quatre sat there like a lump on a log as the strange noble came straight to his table, trying to figure out what to do. “I am Wyrack. You are?” Wyrack… Quatre felt his jaw drop slightly before he could catch it. Wyrack wasn’t just a name, or a title…it was both. The Wyrack was the main sorcerer and advisor to the royal family. His word was law, and few dared to challenge him on *anything.* Okay, apparently whatever Quatre had done had been a major no-no. “Quatre Raberba. May I help you with something?” =And can I run before you can catch me?= “That will not be discussed here. Follow me.” …no running. Nuts. Quatre left a few coins on the table to pay for his lunch and dutifully followed Wyrack out of the tavern. What he saw outside did not reassure him. There was a guard of about a dozen men, all in the Queen’s colors. They were all mounted on the huge red elk that seemed to dominate this region. Quatre still found it strange to see elk being ridden instead of horses but apparently horses were a scarce commodity here. There were two without a rider. Quatre was silently motioned to get on one, which he did with a bit of trepidation. If this was anything like riding a horse, he’d be okay, but if it wasn’t…well, being bucked off wouldn’t get him killed. He’d already proven that if he were busted up, he could do something about it. They rode out of town at a quick trot. Quatre managed to adjust to the gait of the elk and by observation realized that this was very similar to riding a horse. Well, at least one thing was going his way today. “Forgive my impertinence, Wyrack, but could you explain why you were looking for me?” Especially since he couldn’t think of any heinous crime he’d committed to deserve this kind of attention. “That will be explained at the palace.” Yup, he was afraid that would be the answer. “Just answer one question, if you would.” Wyrack glanced at him, faded blue eyes sharp and weighing. “Ask.” =Well, here goes nothing.= “Am I in trouble?” One bushy eyebrow shot up. “No. Should you be?” “No,” Quatre answered dryly. Phew. Okay, so he wasn’t in trouble. He could work with this. “I just couldn’t think of a good reason why the Wyrack would come collect me himself. I figured I had to have done something…or been accused of something.” “Hm. No, it is nothing like that. Your accent is strange, as is your features. Are you unco?” “Yes,” Quatre admitted easily. Unco was the first word he’d learned here, since everyone had assumed that he was a foreigner on sight. You tend to learn the repetitively used words first, after all. “I’ve never seen someone like you before,” Wyrack said slowly with frequent glances at Quatre’s face. “You probably won’t ever again.” Most of the people in Hain had brown or black hair, with a few redheads here and there. With Quatre’s very pale hair and turquoise eyes, he stood out in sharp contrast. That and the fact that he was considerably shorter than people here too. “My country is very, very far away from here.” “What is it called?” Quatre almost said ‘never mind, you won’t know’ but this man was a sorcerer…he might actually recognize it. “Elfoure.” Wyrack blinked. “Elfoure?! But that country is on the moon!” “…I know.” Wyrack paused in his continued rant, intently studying the young man riding beside him. “How did you get here?” “Pirates. They used some kind of weird combination of magic and technology that enabled them to go back and forth between Moon and Terran. I escaped from them—” and blew their ship to smithereens “—over two months ago.” “I would greatly appreciate hearing the full account of that story.” “At the palace,” Quatre agreed. As soon as they entered the capital’s gates, Quatre noticed that he was gathering a lot of attention. People would first remark upon the guard, the Wyrack (the elderly sorcerer did sort of stand out with his bright clothing) and then Quatre…and stay there with incredulous expressions. To those who stared openly, Quatre would wave at them and wink. To everyone else he just gave a friendly smile. His actions did not go unnoticed. Wyrack watched for a few minutes before commenting, “Do you normally act in such an outlandish fashion?” “There’s only one way to deal with potential embarrassment, Wyrack.” Quatre gave him a brilliant smile. “And that’s to grin your way through it. Otherwise you look silly, trying to hide from it or ignore the fact that you’ve gained too much attention.” “Hm.” Quatre wasn’t sure if the sorcerer agreed with him or not, but he let it lie. They kept weaving their way through the crowded streets. Quatre was interested to note that despite the packed quarters, everything was clean and well maintained. The people looked content at least, well fed, and he only caught sight of a few beggars. The government wasn’t terribly corrupt, if the citizens were anything to go by. The people out in the country might be a bit worse off, by his observation. There was no challenge at the Palace gates as they went through. Considering his escort, Quatre was not surprised. He dismounted in the outer courtyard with a twinge of relief. There apparently were differences between riding an elk and riding a horse…and he’d be feeling those differences tomorrow morning, definitely. “This way.” Quatre followed Wyrack, trying to look at his surroundings without being too terribly obvious about it. Between the gilded columns, polished wood floors and expensive knick knacks cluttering the alcoves, the place reeked of wealth. It made him just a little uncomfortable. He felt like a child tracking mud over a clean floor or something. They wound their way through various halls, up levels, down levels, which eventually left Quatre completely lost and confused. =Thank heavens that I have a tour guide…= Wyrack stopped finally at a door and knocked lightly. “That had better be you Wyrack!” an indignant female voice called. Quatre choked slightly. Wyrack glanced back at him in irritation, not at all pleased with the other’s amusement. Quatre just grinned back at him. =I think I know who wears the pants around here.= Maybe he had a way of reading minds. Wyrack gave one last frosty glare before opening the door and going through. “It is, Lowan.” “It’s about time!” Quatre came around Wyrack in order to see who he was talking to. It was a very pretty teenage girl with blue eyes (currently glaring daggers), brown hair done up in ringlets around her head, and an elegant crown sitting on her head. With the ruffly blue dress she wore, she could have been some child’s doll. A pouting doll. Quatre followed Wyrack’s lead and bowed politely. “Lowan, this is Quatre Raberba. Quatre, this is Chaelane Baecane, Queen of Hain. You will address her as Lowan.” Quatre nodded in understanding, silently thanking Wyrack for that bit of instruction. He hadn’t been sure if you addressed royalty the same way here as home—as it turned out, you didn’t. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Lowan.” She instantly lost her irritation and became all smiles and delight. “And you as well, Master Quatre. Please be seated.” Quatre caught this silent exchange between sorcerer and queen as he took a seat before the desk. They were in a very large chamber that Quatre guessed to be the Queen’s personal study. Now why was he in such a private setting with the two highest ranked officials in Hain? Just what were these two scheming? “I assume the scrying went well,” Chaelane caroled sweetly to Wyrack. Wyrack gave a resigned glance towards the heavens. “Yes, Lowan. He is the answer.” “Excellent.” She beamed at him happily before turning to Quatre. “Have you been informed about the situation?” “No, Lowan. Wyrack refused to say anything of the matter until we came here.” He wished that hadn’t been the case, this whole thing was making Quatre quite nervous. “Ah. Well then let me start at the beginning. I am newly arisen to my position, Master Quatre. I am still trying to form my own core of advisors. I am at a loss as to who I can trust. I asked Wyrack to do a scrying for me, and find someone that can find the information that I need, and deliver it to me as honestly as possible.” She paused at this point and looked at him expectantly. From the look on her face, he felt that he was justified to jump to a rather large assumption. Quatre slowly went taut in his chair. “Me, in other words.” “Precisely!” =Does she have to say that so cheerfully?! = Apparently the young queen had no idea what she had just asked. Quatre felt a headache coming on as he thought the situation through and realized how much work would be involved. His glance at Wyrack was almost panicked. “You are the answer to the scrying,” Wyrack pronounced neutrally, expression saying clearly ‘believe me, I know, I don’t want to be involved in this either’. “There is no mistake.” “Ah.” Quatre took in a deep breath. Right. He could deal with this, really he could. He lowered his eyes to his hands, thinking things through rapidly. What she asked might just be possible…but not by himself. One person alone couldn’t do the job. And there were other factors as well to consider. Still…yes, it just might be possible. What he wasn’t sure about was if he even *wanted* this position. Did he want this kind of responsibility, this kind of power? =Well, it’s either take up this offer or farming…and I know I don’t like farming.= Odds were he would never again be offered a position like this. =When in doubt, jump.= Raising his head he looked at her squarely. “Lowan, I will only agree to this on two conditions.” She blinked at him. “Conditions?” She shared something of an incredulous glance with Wyrack. Apparently she wasn’t used to people laying ‘conditions’ before her. “And what might those be?” “One, you give me and the subordinates I will gather complete familiarity.” She froze up, staring at him in confusion. “Familiarity? And what subordinates?” “I’ll get to them in a minute,” he deflected wryly. “Let’s stick with the first issue for a moment. If I’m reading the situation right, you want more than just an informant—you want someone that will tell you when you’re making mistake. I can only do that if you allow me to be blunt without worrying about being thrown into prison or getting myself beheaded. I can be honest and blunt with you, Lowan—but not at the risk of my life or liberty.” After a long moment she started to nod. “Very well, you make a valid point. The right of familiarity is granted. But what subordinates?” “That’s the second condition. There is no way that I can do this job alone. I request the right to gather more people.” “How many people?” Wyrack questioned slowly. Quatre was caught flat footed for a moment. How many would do the trick? Hm… “I think nine.” “*Nine*?” Chaelane demanded incredulously. He paused, looking at her in askance. “Too many?” “Too few!” she protested. “I would think fifty.” He was already shaking his head as she protested. “No, Lowan, that’s a recipe for trouble. The moment that any organization grows too large for the boss to keep tabs on every individual, corruption begins to sink in. If you think nine is too few, however, we can up the number to twelve.” “Twelve…” she started nibbling on her bottom lip. “I’m not sure if twelve is even enough.” “If it isn’t, then I’ll enlarge the number,” he promised her. “But to start out with, I only wish to deal with twelve people…myself included, naturally.” Wyrack stirred slightly in his chair. “How is it that you can immediately answer this with a solution?” Valid question. “Ah. I’ve always been fascinated with military history, and was an avid student of it. In the course of studying, I was perforce studying politics as well to a degree. We had a similar situation as this some decades ago in my country. The solution was that the Emperor formed his own intelligence network in order to serve his needs. The first two generations or so it worked extraordinarily well…until it grew too large in size for any one person to keep track of, then it started becoming very corrupt and eventually the government was forced to disband it. The principal behind it was sound; I’m just adding the modifications to it that I feel are necessary.” Quatre nodded to the young queen studying him so thoughtfully. “It answers the need you have, does it not?” “…yes,” she admitted. “Master Quatre, you are unco are you not?” “Indeed.” “Where is your country?” “Elfoure.” At her blank look he elaborated. “I come from the moon, Lowan.” Her eyes flew wide. “The moon?! How did you get here?!” There were times when he rather wondered that himself. Quatre shook his head. “It’s a long story.” “One that we don’t have time for,” Wyrack noted regretfully. “Lowan, you have a meeting with the Judicial Counsel in a half hour. Before you go, we should at least have a rough outline of this group.” “I get the story at dinner,” Chaelane grumbled petulantly. “Master Quatre, you’re joining me at the table.” Quatre gave her a half bow from his chair. “I would be delighted, Lowan.” “Hmph. Alright, what details do we need to discuss?” “First, the nature of the group itself.” Quatre rubbed fingertips together in a slow motion as he tried to formulate the right way of phrasing everything. “Our true nature will be intelligence gathering, but we should also have the power to stop a situation if it’s getting out of control. We also need to have the power behind us to force people to give us answers, as necessary.” Chaelane waved a hand negligently in the air. “Those are natural assumptions for this situation. Agreed. What else?” “We need some form of identification. With your permission, I’ll copy your personal seal into the design so that people will automatically recognize our authority.” She nodded easily. “Granted. Do so. What else?” “A name?” Wyrack suggested. “On my world,” Quatre offered thoughtfully, “the organization was called ‘Hearken’. It meant to listen by stealth, to prompt secretively, or to whisper. Will that name suffice?” Chaelane cocked her head, considering that for a few moments. “I think so. It’s rather accurate, actually.” She glanced at the clock near her hand on the desk and sighed. “I really must get ready for that meeting. One last thing—is Quatre Raberba your full name?” Quatre blinked. “Yes, Lowan.” “Are you aware that on this world, your name means ‘wanderer’?” “…I was not aware of that.” No wonder people had been giving him strange looks when he’d introduced himself. “Hm. Well, I’m changing it. From now on you are Quatre Raberba Winner.” She dimpled at him prettily. “You’re not a wanderer anymore. You are ‘traveling with purpose’.” Quatre controlled his first instinct (which was to laugh at her whimsy) and bowed his head. “Understood. Go to your meeting, I’ll draw up all the guidelines for Hearken and have it ready for you sometime before dinner.” She was out of her seat before she thought the command through, and gave him a suspicious look. “Does the right of familiarity mean that you’re going to be bossy?” Quatre winked at her. “Too late to take it back now, Lowan.” She pouted. “I’ve created a monster.” Quatre politely refrained from agreeing with her…out loud. ~*~*~
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